The Africa Center

Museum in Manhattan, New York

This article is about The Africa Center in New York City. For the African art museum in Washington, D.C., see National Museum of African Art.

The Africa Center

Museum entrance on Fifth Avenue

Former names

| Center for African Art
Museum for African Art
Established| September 1984 (1984-09)
Location| 1280 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
U.S.
Coordinates| 40°47′47″N 73°56′57″W﻿ / ﻿40.79639°N 73.94917°W﻿ / 40.79639; -73.94917
Public transit access|  New York City Subway:

* ​ 110th Street
* ​ Central Park North–110th Street

New York City Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M106 buses
Website| www.theafricacenter.org

The Africa Center, formerly known as the Museum for African Art and before that as the Center for African Art, is a museum located at Fifth Avenue and 110th Street in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile. Founded in 1984, the museum is "dedicated to increasing public understanding and appreciation of African art and culture." The Museum is also well known for its public education programs that help raise awareness of African culture, and also operates a unique store selling authentic handmade African crafts.[1]

The Museum has organized nearly 60 critically acclaimed exhibitions and traveled these to almost 140 venues nationally and internationally, including 15 other countries. Forty of these exhibitions are accompanied by scholarly catalogues.

## History

[edit]

Holland Cotter wrote in 2010 about what is now the Africa Center, "In the 1980s and '90s it revolutionized the way art, any art, could be exhibited. No one else has fully picked up that challenge since. Maybe the museum itself, under wraps the last few years, can do so again."[2]

### 1984–1993: Early years

[edit]

What is now the Africa Center was opened as the Center for African Art in September 1984 by its founding director, Susan Mullin Vogel, who had previously worked as Associate Curator in the "Department of Primitive Art" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The center's original location was on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in "a pair of converted town houses at 54 East 68th Street."[3][4] As director, Vogel curated and organized ground-breaking exhibitions which put into question ways in which African art is presented to Western audiences, and how museum practices structure knowledge for the public. The most well-known of these exhibitions are "Art/Artifact: African Art in Anthropology Collections" in 1988, "Exhibition-ism: Museums and African Art" in 1994, and "Africa Explores: 20th-Century African Art" in 1991. Based largely on Vogel's earlier exhibitions, Roberta Smith wrote in The New York Times in 1989 that the 1980s "may also come to be seen as the beginning of the golden age of African art exhibitions."[5]

### 1993–2002: SoHo

[edit]

In February 1993, the institution changed its name to the Museum for African Art and moved to a three-times larger space at 593 Broadway in Soho, that was designed by the architect and artist Maya Lin and described by New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp as "a flowing sequence of galleries, unfolding on two floors," in which Lin "uses subtle gradations of color to suggest a passage through time as well as space."[6][7] After founding director Vogel was named director of the Yale University Art Gallery in 1994, Grace C. Stanislaus was named as executive director in February 1995.[8] Elsie McCabe (later Elsie McCabe Thompson) led the institution from 1997 until she resigned in 2012. When McCabe took over, she "set her sights on moving the tiny museum and collection" from Soho to uptown Manhattan, saying (ironically given that she moved the museum to its third and fourth locations), "A museum is very much an edifice, and you can't attract a loyal and dedicated audience if you're constantly on the move."[9]

### 2002–2006: Long Island City

[edit]

In September 2002, the museum moved to its third location, at 36–01 43rd Avenue, third floor, in Long Island City, Queens, intended as "an interim home before a permanent move to 110th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan," a site that in 2002 was expected to be ready "within four years or so."[10][11] In 2005, the museum was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.[12][13] The Museum closed its public gallery in Queens in 2006, and in 2013 the board changed its name to the New Africa Center, which later became the Africa Center, and changed its intended purpose from art museum to "a clearinghouse and public policy institute for all things Africa."[14] After several years of delayed openings,[1] and the realization that the initial goal of a museum on Fifth Avenue was not sustainable,[15] the decision was made to broaden the project's scope, and push back the opening to 2015. The new building would be on Museum Mile at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 110th Street in East Harlem, Manhattan.[16]

### 2006–present: Museum Mile

[edit]

The new location, in a building designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern, is the first museum building built on New York's Museum Mile since the completion of the Guggenheim in 1959. It was to serve as a cultural center, modeling itself after the Asia Society and other similar organizations. The new building's aim was to make the museum accessible to a wide range of people from the world over, thus solidifying the museum's presence as one of the most challenging and diverse art institutions in the U.S.[17] The new building would encompass approximately 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) with 16,000 square feet (1,500 m2) of exhibition space, as well as a theater, education center, library, classrooms, event space, restaurant and gift shop. The growth into the cultural center was spearheaded by, CEO Uzodinma Iweala and board members Chelsea Clinton, Halima Dangote, and Hadeel Ibrahim daughter of Mo Ibrahim.[1]

While the outer-shell of the building was completed in 2010, critical interior build-out and occupation was delayed by stalled fundraising efforts and leadership transitions.[18] In 2015, the Africa Center hired Michelle D. Gavin, former United States Ambassador to Botswana and an expert on Africa, as its managing director.[9] Gavin left in late 2016.[19] In the interim, the Africa Center was to present pop up events in its new space until the building is completed.[15][20] In February 2019, Terenga, a West African fast-casual restaurant, opened in the Africa Center space.[21]

The Africa Center also hosts a Shared Studios Portal, which connects the center live and in real-time to communities around the world. The majority of their Portal connections are to sites on the African continent.[22]

## See also

[edit]

* List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Maloney, Jennifer (September 27, 2013). "New Africa Center's Journey in N.Y." The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
2. ^ Cotter, Holland (September 9, 2010). "Globetrotting While Staying Close to Home". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
3. ^ McGill, Douglas C. (September 18, 1984). "Center Devoted to African Art Opens". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
4. ^ Glueck, Grace (November 3, 1985). "Old-Country Pleasures; Center for African Art". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
5. ^ Smith, Roberta (July 16, 1989). "ART VIEW; Balancing African Anthropology and Art". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
6. ^ Reif, Rita (February 7, 1993). "ARTS/ARTIFACTS; For African Art Treasures, A Place to Spread Out". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
7. ^ Muschamp, Herbert (February 12, 1993). "Review/Architecture; Crossing Cultural Boundaries". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
8. ^ "New Director for African-Art Museum". The New York Times. February 4, 1995. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
9. ^ a b Manly, Lorne (March 18, 2015). "Africa Center Post Gives Michelle D. Gavin a Chance to Show Diplomatic Skills". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
10. ^ "COMING ATTRACTIONS; Eakins, Warhol, African Art and a Bus Ride to Long Island City". The New York Times. April 24, 2002. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
11. ^ Cotter, Holland (September 20, 2002). "ART REVIEW; The Face (And Soul) Of Africa". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
12. ^ Roberts, Sam (July 6, 2005). "City Groups Get Bloomberg Gift of $20 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
13. ^ "Carnegie Corporation of New York Announces Twenty Million Dollars in New York City Grants" (Press release). Carnegie Corporation of New York. July 5, 2005. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008.
14. ^ Cohen, Patricia (August 23, 2013). "Museum for African Art Broadens Its Mandate". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
15. ^ a b Maloney, Jennifer (August 22, 2013). "Museum for African Art Pivots Toward Policy". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
16. ^ "Mayor Bloomberg Announces New Home for the Museum for African Art". NYC EDC. February 8, 2007. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
17. ^ Chan, Sewell (February 9, 2007). "Museum for African Art Finds Its Place". The New York Times. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
18. ^ Moynihan, Colin (March 24, 2017). "Africa Center Looks to Close Fund-Raising Gap, and Open Its Doors". The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
19. ^ Moynihan, Colin (February 8, 2017). "Loss of Director Is the Latest Setback for the Africa Center" - via NYTimes.com.
20. ^ Maloney, Jennifer (September 26, 2013). "New Africa Center Sets 2014 Opening Date". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
21. ^ Upadhyaya, Kayla Kumari (February 4, 2019). "West African Fine Dining Chef Returns to NYC With a Hip Harlem Restaurant". Eater NY. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
22. ^ Pitcher, Laura (May 13, 2019). "Step Inside These 'Portals' to Connect with Diverse Communities Around the World". VICE.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

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